Follow all the nhregister.com coverage of boys high school basketball throughout the state on their way to Mohegan Sun Arena, the site of this year's championship weekend, March 15-16.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Career reaches first final

While the quarterfinal-round game against Weaver came donw to the final possession, Career made sure there was no drama in the fourth quarter against Enfield Tuesday night.
The Panthers scored the first six points of the game, never trailed and eliminated Enfield 49-37 in the Class M state semifinals at CCSU. Career's defense gave Enfield fits, forcing 16 turnovers. While Trechon Preston had 20 points (four in the first half), the rest of Enfield's team had 17 collectively.
Top-seeded Career will stay have to be better in both ends against No. 18 Trinity Catholic, an overtime winner against Notre Dame-Fairfield. The Crusaders have tournament pedigree (five state titles) a good coach (Mike Walsh) and a pair of underrated guards (Shadrac Casimir and Jonathan Boykin) that could give Career some trouble. The Panthers will need to control the boards and limit turnovers to take home their first state title.
In Class LL, as expected, St. Joseph advanced past Glastonbury rather easily (62-42) setting up a battle with Fairfield Prep, making its first appearance in a final since 1997. These two teams used to be in the old MBIAC and ACC (an all Catholic League) before going their seperate ways.
You have to hand it to Fairfield Prep. I never thought they would get here, especially after seeing Windsor in its half of the draw. But Xavier took care of the Warriors and Prep took care of Xavier for the third time, along with Crosby and Ridgefield. St. Joes is the favorite but Prep will not go down easily.

Class L semis are Wednesday night with Lyman Hall against Northwest Catholic at CCSU. As I sit here typing in an empty Detrick Gymnasium, I expect it to be an exciting atmosphere. Lyman Hall has had success in this building before (beating E.O. Smith en route to the 2008 L final) and will bring a good crowd. So will Northwest. Looking forward to seeing Kuran Iverson for N-West.
This is one of those nights I wish I could be in two places at once. Maloney vs. New London at the New Haven Athletic Center should be a war. Two teams have combined for one loss. Three of the best guards are on display (Torin Childs-Harris and Kris Dunn for New London, Ryan Belote for Maloney). Maloney may try to run with the Whalers. That would be in New London's favor.

In Class S, its Valley Regional trying to reach its first final in school history against St. Paul, the team it beat at the buzzer in the quartrfinals last year. Classical Magnet faces Capital Prep in the other semifinal.

Days and times for the four state championship gams will be finalized on Thursday. Follow us on twitter at @jmorelli44 to find out early in the day on Thursday.